WW Fusion in Higgsless Models

TL;DR

This paper investigates the potential for discovering a neutral vector resonance in Higgsless models at the LHC, demonstrating that high-mass states above 1 TeV could be detected with sufficient luminosity using specific event selection techniques.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the LHC discovery prospects for the first neutral vector state in Higgsless models, including background estimation and event selection strategies.

Findings

Discovery potential for $V_1^0$ above 1 TeV at 5σ significance

Effective background suppression with jet tagging and veto techniques

High transverse momentum tails distinguish signal from background

Abstract

Recently several Higgsless models of electroweak symmetry breaking have been proposed in which unitarity of $W,Z$ scattering amplitudes is partially restored through a tower of massive vector gauge bosons. These massive states are expected to couple mainly to $W$ and $Z$ and should appear as resonances in $WW$ and $WZ$ fusion at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). We study the LHC discovery reach for the first neutral state, $V_1^0$, through the reaction $W^+W^- \to V_1^0 \to W^+W^- \to e^\pm \mu^\mp + \eslt$. The background from $t\bar{t}$, $\tau^+\tau^-$ and $W$ pair production is calculated and dual forward jet tagging as well as a mini-jet veto in the central detector region are applied. The maximal $P_T(e,\mu)$ distribution is found to have a fat tail for large $P_T$ that rises above the backgrounds and allows $5\sigma$ discovery for $V_1^0$ masses above 1 TeV and total integrated luminosity of 300 fb$^{-1}$.